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Monday, November 19, 2012

A Crisis of Accountability

Three days before the last federal election, Elections Canada confronted the Conservatives about suspicious calls directing voters to the wrong polling stations but were met with denials of any wrongdoing from the party’s lawyer, internal emails show.

So it's now been revealed that Election's Canada was aware of the robocall issue before the election happened. Yet the investigation into the robocalls didn't start until there was a citizen outcry. How much evidence was destroyed in this time? We'll probably never know.

Why is voter suppression damaging?

Voter suppression has long term effects beyond the direct fraud of trying to steal an election. What is a vote? It's basically a huge poll, which attempts to be 100% accurate for an entire population. Let's call it "the ultimate poll". Do you trust polls? Why or why not?

I don't trust polls because I understand that they are an excellent propaganda tool. A poll can be created by pretty well any agency and can be manipulated to convey popular opinion about pretty well anything they want. Are there legitimate polls? Of course, but the question remains: "how does one know?". You can't, really.

Not knowing if a poll is legitimate is pretty well the same as a poll being illegitimate. A shadow of doubt is cast on every poll I encounter, and my default position is to treat them with extreme scepticism. Voter suppression has this chilling effect on the national vote, the truth is that now we simply "do not know".

The U.S. has been dealing with this issue for a long time, and if you look at their last election it shows. Voter fraud did happen, but a landslide victory for Obama couldn't be countered. Of course, the Democrats do their own types of suppression too anyway. The point is though, there is now confusion in the U.S. Some believe the current results are fraudulent, others believe no voter suppression happened at all, others believe that it happened but was effectively countered. There really is no way to know for sure though, is there?

The immediate impact

In the time this "investigation" into the robocalls has been occurring, we've seen significant changes - many of them (such as the free trade agreements) irreversible. It's completely possible that an illegitimate government has been making sweeping changes to Canada: our rights, our sovereignty.

I continue to see Canadians complain about Harper, then (in what seems an act of hopelessness) refer to the 2015 election as "when we'll get Harper out". Getting Harper out isn't going to be the problem though, the problem will come from the decisions being made right now at that point.

This is the future of our sovereignty and it's only going to get worse the longer we idly stand by and let it happen. By the time Harper is finished, we're going to be so dependent on the "global economy" that we will not be able to make any laws in our own favor without them being challenged.

Ratings agencies, the IMF, and G20 now have control over global social and banking policy, as when a country does something they don't like they can simply issue warnings, credit outlooks, etc. Instead of having the Bank of Canada issue our currency they instead facilitate the sales of debt to private interests or other countries to provide the means for the Government to "borrow". This is why these credit ratings, etc, are important. I see a lot of people lately that say "government budgets are not household finances". Our current debt arrangement however forces budgets to act as if they are household budgets. All of the interest on our debt which should be paid to the Government of Canada via the Bank of Canada are instead given to foreign interests. That's real capital leaving the country just so we can issue our currency and pay for our services.

The trade laws then cover the productive and resource laws of Canada allowing foreign interests to bypass the standard governmental proceedings to challenge the operation of something within a country. They can now take the complaint to the W.T.O. and the law, rule, or regulation created by Canadians through their elected government or subsequent panel can be countered. By 2015, what do you think the elected body will have power over? Not much. I (for one) no longer have full confidence in our electoral system anyway, and Harper isn't the only puppet around. Many people have Harper's intentions wrong, he is not seizing control of Canada, he is completing the implementation of the sellout of Canada to the global governance entity he pledged his loyalty to.

A line in the sand

Democracy and the vote have been effectively countered. What we exist in today is a sham democracy, a democracy in name only. A line in the sand needs to be drawn, and 2015 isn't it. The Canadian people are playing Checkers while the powers currently attempting to have this agenda passed are playing Chess and they almost have us in a Check-Mate.

This isn't democracy or politics, this is an economic takeover, an invasion. Its the same sort of takeover that the western world has been enforcing on the third world countries for years. Now, that the majority of the third world is destabilized or under western control the sights have been turned on the citizens of the countries which provided the foundation for this global governance network. The global governance network is not based out of anywhere, the entire planet is their home country. Canadian international corporations are not Canadian, they are international. Same goes for the U.S. companies, and every other country. They have now completely elevated themselves above the sovereignty of countries and have no loyalty to anyone but themselves.

If this sounds all too conspiratorial for you, take a look around. Take a look as one by one your ability to have any meaningful control or input as a citizen is systematically taken away. A vote isn't going to fix that, Canadians.

Back to the voter suppression

The entire situation is very serious, and very little has been done. Elections Canada dithers and yet the government is allowed to continue on with impunity as though it's not illegal at all and the actions it's involved in are not treasonous. I don't use the word treason lightly, what is occurring here is by definition treason. Do you think you can vote out treason? The results of treason? no. If the opposition parties are serious about having this issue addressed right now (and if Canadian citizens are serious) then I call for a strike of Parliament itself.

What do I mean? Well, Parliament has been turned into a largely ceremonial body now. It has stood by as it's power is taken away and centralized in the Prime Minister's Office, not unlike the centralization of power occurring in the U.S. with the office of the President. As far as I can tell, there is only one way left to put parliament to use - and that is to shut it down in protest.

What will this help? I believe it will place a giant spotlight on the current actions of the government and generate outrage. Only a massive and unified public outcry can stop what's happening and the continued operation of parliament as a ceremonial body simply aides the illusion of democracy. Essentially, if the PMO wants to act with impunity, then a shutdown of parliament (by opposition MPs simply all walking out and refusing to return until they get proper input and the proper procedures are respected and the Elections Canada investigation is completed as a public inquiry) will give him exactly what he already has but in a very public way. The government will then have two choices: Either acknowledge the demands of parliament or continue operating without any parliamentary oversight. The first scenario is the goal, to force them to halt operations until confidence can be restored in the electoral system, but the second scenario is the backup.

The second scenario must be done with the opposition parties waging a P.R. war to explain why it's happening. Lots of rallies, public speeches, etc. This should in theory generate enough public outcry and rage that if the government continues to act as though everything is simply business as usual it's credibility as a democratic entity is severely hurt.

I believe that Canada's political paralyzation to take action comes from the thin veil of democracy we think we have left, removing this veil will hopefully shock the population into action. At the very worst, we're in the same situation we're in as parliament can not effectively counter the situation we're in. Power to do so no longer lies with them.

This idea might sound extremist to you, and it is. But I tell you what, Canadians, the longer we let this go on, the more "extremist" the ideas will have to become to counter it. Like I said, we're not in Kansas anymore.

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Richard Fantin is a self-taught software developer who has mostly throughout his career focused on financial applications and high frequency trading. He currently works for eQube gaming systems.

Nazayh Zanidean is a Project Coordinator for a mid-sized construction contractor in Calgary, Alberta. He enjoys writing as a hobby on topics that include foreign policy, international human rights, security and systemic media bias.